Winter
Winter
In Southern California, we experience mild winters. But still the air cools, the rains come, and the days shorten. For these reasons, we can enjoy the mood of winter even if it doesn’t snow or get terribly cold. We can experience an inward quietness, a patience and inner warmth, a contemplation and reflection and a sense of wonder. It may seem that Nature sleeps in the winter, but in some cases winter brings forth life that hibernate at other times of the year. While it tends to be quieter, as the sounds of new life are yet to emerge in spring, instead we have the sounds of the wind and the rain. The trickle of seasonal creeks and the chirping of morning birds is reserved for the spring so instead, we delight in the rustle of the leaves and the crunch of dried dirt beneath our feet. Often our landscapes are obscured by a dense morning fog, or on occasion, the foothills are covered in a dusting of snow that quickly melts as the day unfolds. While we naturally come inward as the days get shorter, there is a sense of activity as the weather is suitable for much and even things where the summer heat prevents us from doing we can easily partake in the winter. Nature hikes are especially wonderful this time of year as they may be enjoyed anytime of day. Whereas other places may experience a brown and white landscape as snow covers the bare trees, we enjoy a year round sage green and earthy brown landscape.
Winter time is an especially good time to do handwork and history. As the days get shorter, and the nights get longer, we tend to be inward more often. In the quiet of the darkening evening, storytelling and history are the perfect companion. As we tell stories or read from histories, we work on our handwork. Sewing, knitting, embroidery and felting are some of the activities that develop during the winter months. While young children may not partake in these activities as much as older children, they are present for the stories and the watercoloring and the hot cocoa.
Winter Crafts & Activities
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Winter Themed Unit
Curious how we are doing our non-religious winter themed unit? I'm sharing what materials we are using and how we picked them. This Waldorf inspired winter themed unit will last from December through February and will include fairy tales, songs, poems, activities, watercoloring, block crayon drawings, form drawing, crafts and cooking.
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Winter Nature Table
This winter inspired nature table is more than a place to display our nature finds from walks, it's a themed table with winter peg dolls, winter books and an assortment of decorations that turn this winter nature table into a themed play center.
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Winter Star Suncatchers
Making suncatchers is an easy satisfying craft for the whole family to enjoy. You can find this kit at A Child's Dream. It comes with an instructional book with several star designs with easy-to-follow step by step instructions.
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Winter Peg Doll Tutorial
If you're looking for a simple winter inspired peg doll tutorial, this is it! These bunting babies with white painted snowflakes and petite bonnets are fast, easy and super adorable. I made this trio of snowflake babies to accompany our other peg dolls and finger puppets on our winter themed nature table
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Winter Peg Doll Tutorial | Mama & Papa
I made this set for my daughter for our Winter Nature Table. While these are winter peg dolls, I found that because of their detail and size, they did not get enjoyed as much as the simpler, more generic dolls and so they were gifted.
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Peg Doll Comparison & Winter's Cape Wool Felt
It's time for some winter crafts! Do you make peg dolls, finger puppets or anything with felt? Check out this winter collection by A Child's Dream. It's called Winter's Cape and the colors are beautiful for all kinds of fall and winter inspired projects.
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Candle Making in Silicone Molds
Looking for a creative way to use up old bits of candles? Try melting them down to make new candles! We did just that for this project. I used leftover wax from a large three wick candle from Colonial Candles from Cape Cod.
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Hand Stitched Snowflake
This is one simple yet beautiful project you can complete in no time, especially if you do the stitching like my 11-year-old son and not like me! We used gold and metallic DMC thread to stitch designs on the wool blend die cut snowflakes using two simple stitches: the running stitch and the back stitch.
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Winter Inspired Dolls Grey
How darling and cozy do these little winter inspired dolls look?! I have to say that to date, these are my favorite set of finger puppets. I had to dip into a large 18x18 inch piece of grey felt that I was saving for another project, but it was worth it!
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Winter Inspired Doll | Double Long Braids
It's the season to get cozy with hot chocolate sitting by the fireplace while the little ones play. Add these charming winter inspired dolls to your kids' pretend play toys for hours of open-ended creative play. Supplies for this project are wool felt, wool batting, wool yarn, finger puppet base, enamel dots, glue gun and scissors.
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Winter Inspired Doll | Green Finger Puppet Tutorial
This is the last in a set of three winter inspired finger puppets. Perfect for this winter season, whether you live in a place that snows or not. These cozy looking puppets will inspire sitting around the fireplace with hot cocoa. Add these puppets to your kids' stash of pretend-play toys for hours of creative open place.
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CRAFT + HOMESCHOOL HAUL
Looking for felt that's of better quality than the acrylic felt from craft stores but more affordable than 100% wool felt? How about a wool blend? Or bamboo felt! I found Over The River Felt during a search on Amazon and later contacted the company to see if they'd like to donate products for my felt comparison video.
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Winter Themed Unit Review
Let's see how we did. Our winter themed Waldorf inspired unit has come to an end. Some things we enjoyed and others really started to annoy me. I was surprised that winter themed books were eventually going to rub me the wrong way.
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Seed Pod Fire Starter
Fire Starters can be cute and charming and while our pinecone fire starters are far more charming, these seed pod fire starters worked much better. These seed pods are from the tree brachychiton or more commonly known as bottle tree or flame tree. They are a common tree used for landscaping in Southern California.
Winter Projects & Activities
Winter Themed Unit
Curious how we are doing our non-religious winter themed unit? I'm sharing what materials we are using and how we picked them. This Waldorf inspired winter themed unit will last from December through February and will include fairy tales, songs, poems, activities, watercoloring, block crayon drawings, form drawing, crafts and cooking. Many of the projects will have video tutorials and you can see them here in the complete Winter playlist.
For this unit, I have a list of materials and projects we used that can be downloaded for free! You can use this list to make your own lesson plans. If you'd rather have the completed lesson plans, they are available for sale at Teachers Pay Teacher.
We plant to do a number of lessons and activities during this season and while this unit is geared towards my six-year-old, there are some activities, like knitting and stitching, that are too advanced for her and will be completed by my 11-year-old.
Things will change! Our lesson plans are fluid and dynamic and many changes will happen before this unit is over. Activities and lessons will be added while others will not be completed. To see a complete review of our unit, check back at the end of the season for a complete summary of how this unit went.
Winter Nature Table
This winter inspired nature table is more than a place to display our nature finds from walks, it's a themed table with winter peg dolls, winter books and an assortment of decorations that turn this winter nature table into a themed play center. My six-year-old loves to play here with the peg dolls and other trinkets on this table. For the winter months, I've added lanterns and candles, as well as some geodes and crystals that evoke a winter feel, but stay true to our current main lesson block in mineralogy.
I have a complete winter lesson plan which will be available soon as well as a video how to for putting together a winter themed unit.
Looking to put together your own nature table? Try adding the following things to your nature table to transform it into a themed table:
-books
-lanterns
-playthings
-fabric
-nature finds
-candles
-personal items like heirloom ornaments or bells
-small wooden trees
-branches or twigs
-geodes and crystals
-rocks
See our other Winter Inspired projects.
Check out our last nature table here.
Winter Star Suncatchers
Making suncatchers is an easy satisfying craft for the whole family to enjoy. You can find this kit at A Child's Dream. It comes with an instructional book with several star designs with easy-to-follow step by step instructions. The kit also comes with enough kite paper to make several stars as well as a glue stick. The only thing you'll need is a pair of scissors. A Child's Dream also carries kite paper in an assortment of colors that can be purchased separately. Kite Paper is from A Child’s Dream.
Winter Peg Doll Tutorial
If you’re looking for a simple winter inspired peg doll tutorial, this is it! These bunting babies with white painted snowflakes and petite bonnets are fast, easy and super adorable. I made this trio of snowflake babies to accompany our other peg dolls and finger puppets on our winter themed nature table. My six-year-old loves playing here and adding a few new peg dolls to the mix enlivens her pretend play. This project uses just a few products, all of which can be found at A Child’s Dream: Bunting babies, Lyra Watercolors, and Winter’s Cape felt. You can see our winter nature table and how we put together our winter themed unit here.
Winter Peg Doll Tutorial
Mama & Papa
I made this set for my daughter for our Winter Nature Table. While these are winter peg dolls, I found that because of their detail and size, they did not get enjoyed as much as the simpler, more generic dolls and so they were gifted.
You may not have noticed, but these are the extra large peg dolls. When I saw them at A Child's Dream, I wasn't interested in them. They were too big for my liking. My kids saw them and asked if we could try them out. I said, "okay." They are 3.5 inches tall compared to the 2 inches of the typical peg dolls. When we received them, I wasn't thrilled with them. While working with them, I found them too big, but when I was finished with this project, I absolutely loved them! Who knew! I certainly didn't. I'm happy we tried these out. I have two more sets, and I'm thinking of making a mama and papa spring and summer…we'll see.
There's a first for everything :)
Check out our other finger puppet tutorials.
Check out the peg dolls playlist!
All materials except for beads are from A Child's Dream:
Large Peg Doll -Man, Large Peg Doll -Woman, Felt in Winter and Autumn colors, Finger Puppet, Peg Doll Book
Peg Doll Comparison & Winter's Cape Wool Felt
It's time for some winter crafts! Do you make peg dolls, finger puppets or anything with felt? Check out this winter collection by A Child's Dream. It's called Winter's Cape and the colors are beautiful for all kinds of fall and winter inspired projects. I'll be using these items for a peg doll exchange coming up. Debbie at A Child's Dream sent me these supplies for free so I could make and send charming little winter inspired dolls to another mystery family here on YouTube.
Candle Making in Silicone Molds
Looking for a creative way to use up old bits of candles? Try melting them down to make new candles! We did just that for this project. I used leftover wax from a large three wick candle from Colonial Candles from Cape Cod. It had a lovely mild cinnamon scent. I melted down the pieces in a candle making pot. I used my smallest burner on the lowest setting, but even that's too high. Keep on eye on your melting wax or try putting the whole pot into a pot of water where you can slowly warm the water to the right temperature.
Once the candle wax was melted, we positioned our wicks which were just cotton twine used in the kitchen, and poured a bit of wax in. If the wax isn't too hot, it cools within minutes, and you can pour the rest of the wax in. If you don't want to hold the wicks in position, you can wrap the twine around a popsicle stick and rest on top of the mold while you pour the wax in.
Wait until the wax is fully set and cooled to room temperature before popping them out of the mold. Using a silicone mold works brilliantly for this, plus you can get fabulous designs. If you wish to use a cookie cutter or make pillars in jars, you can release your candle from the mold by placing it into water for a few seconds to melt the outside of the wax so the candle slips out.
How to make hand dipped candles.
The silicone mold we used is by Melting Pots.
Sadly, these are no longer available.
Hand Stitched Snowflake
This is one simple yet beautiful project you can complete in no time, especially if you do the stitching like my 11-year-old son and not like me! We used gold and metallic DMC thread to stitch designs on the wool blend die cut snowflakes using two simple stitches: the running stitch and the back stitch. You can use a single or a double strand of thread, but I found that the single strand looked far better. The gold stands out more on the white snowflakes, but the silver looks magical. I asked if Over The River Felt would be interested in sending me samples of their products so I could share them with you and they said yes! The snowflakes were sent to me free of charge. They come in two sizes and are of a high quality wool blend felt.
Project Details: Materials: snowflake diecuts, metallic thread or colored embroidery floss, needle, scissors. Cost: $7 for 12 projects, less if you use DMC embroidery thread instead of metallic thread Level: easy/beginner Age: 8 years and up Duration: 15 minutes
Winter Inspired Dolls
Grey Outfit
How darling and cozy do these little winter inspired dolls look?! I have to say that to date, these are my favorite set of finger puppets. I had to dip into a large 18×18 inch piece of grey felt that I was saving for another project, but it was worth it!
Supplies for this project are wool felt, wool yarn, wool batting, enamel dots, finger puppet base, scissors and glue gun. You can find most of these supplies from A Child’s Dream.
Duration: 20 minutes
Level: beginner or 12 years and up
Winter Inspired Doll
Double Long Braids
Blast from the past! I uploaded this video a year ago and ran out of time to post it…Enjoy!! I did manage to share it on Instagram…so if you were one of those patient people waiting for this tutorial, here it is!!
It’s the season to get cozy with hot chocolate sitting by the fireplace while the little ones play. Add these charming winter inspired dolls to your kids’ pretend play toys for hours of open-ended creative play.
Supplies for this project are wool felt, wool batting, wool yarn, finger puppet base, enamel dots, glue gun and scissors.
Most supplies can be found at your local craft store or online at A Child’s Dream.
Duration: 20 minutes
Level: Beginner (easy) ages 12 and up
Did you make a finger puppet inspired by my tutorials? Share a pic on Instagram! Don’t forget to tag me 🙂
Winter Inspired Doll
Green Finger Puppet Tutorial
This is the last in a set of three winter inspired finger puppets. Perfect for this winter season, whether you live in a place that snows or not. These cozy looking puppets will inspire sitting around the fireplace with hot cocoa. Add these puppets to your kids' stash of pretend-play toys for hours of creative open place. Supplies for this project include wool felt, wool yarn, finger puppet base, hot glue gun, scissors and bling embellishments.
Duration: 20 minutes level: intermediate (because of the gems and the bow clasp)
Supplies for this project are wool felt, wool batting, wool yarn, finger puppet base, enamel dots, glue gun and scissors.
Level: Beginner (easy) ages 12 and up
Most supplies can be found at your local craft store or online at A Child’s Dream.
Did you make a finger puppet inspired by my tutorials? Share a pic on Instagram! Don’t forget to tag me 🙂
CRAFT + HOMESCHOOL HAUL
Over The River Felt
Looking for felt that's of better quality than the acrylic felt from craft stores but more affordable than 100% wool felt? How about a wool blend? Or bamboo felt! I found Over The River Felt during a search on Amazon and later contacted the company to see if they'd like to donate products for my felt comparison video. They said yes! I chose a variety of products from their shop to share with you today and I can already tell you their selection is fantastic!
I've left links to several of the products so you can check the updated prices.
So far I'm loving the Superhero Mask DIY kit. My kids had a blast do this project.
https://overtheriverfelt.com/shop/super-hero-make-it-yourself-jumbo-kit/
We recently used the snowflakes for a winter stitching project and plan to do the same stitching project with the fall leaves set.
I'm already excited about the bamboo felt as it's a fantastic all natural alternative to the wool felt and wool blend felt. The wool blend felt comes in many colors and is about half the cost of the wool felt.
Bamboo Felt, 20/80 wool/rayon blend, 35/65 wool/rayon blend, Wool Felt collections.
Winter Themed Unit Review
Let's see how we did. Our winter themed Waldorf inspired unit has come to an end. Some things we enjoyed and others really started to annoy me. I was surprised that winter themed books were eventually going to rub me the wrong way. Why aren't there winter books with the sun streaming and the kids in the pool, where there are rolling brown hills and winter blooming shrubs? There are enough areas where winter is not that different from fall or spring. What really happens in the winter in southern California? Sure the days get short and we get a few chilly nights. We pull out the sweatshirts and shiver because we leave the windows open and don't know how to wear anything other than shorts. Most days are sunny and pleasant and we can enjoy the outdoor weather without threat of freezing. So why did so many of my projects represent a winter that was inauthentic to our region? You can bet that next winter I'll dispense with the storybook images of winter and create an authentic California winter. Initially, I liked the winter table, but I never loved it like the fall table. I love winter, but I couldn't wait to wipe the winter table clean and decorate for spring. Spring is a time of renewal and energy for many people. And sure enough, the creative challenges we had in the winter melted away as soon as March rolled around. I felt like most of our winter activities and projects were forced. I'm going into spring with renewed intention to make our seasonal units, not just regionally accurate, but personally authentic.
Here are three products we loved from our Winter Themed Unit:
Making Peg Dolls by Margaret Bloom, the Suncatchers Kit, and the Father and Mother peg dolls all from A Child's Dream. One product I didn't care for was the book The Way of the Gnome.
We did a real-time watercoloring lesson for this unit. If you like that kind of video, I made a playlist of all the real-time lessons on my channel. For that lesson, we used a wide paint brush, Stockmar paints and 140 lb. Strathmore watercolor paper.
Seed Pod Fire Starter
Fire Starters can be cute and charming and while our pinecone fire starters are far more charming, these seed pod fire starters worked much better. These seed pods are from the tree brachychiton or more commonly known as bottle tree or flame tree. They are a common tree used for landscaping in Southern California.
While out on a morning walk, I was looking for pinecones to make fire starters. Our neighborhood has an abundance of pine trees so I was confident I could find some. And, as we are unable to take nature treasures from our local regional parks (per park rules), I was walked my neighborhood this morning with purpose and a bag.
At first, I didn't find too many pinecones and the ones I did find were too large for the project I had in mind. Nevertheless, I did eventually find three varieties of pinecones and some were small enough for the project I had in mind.
Towards the end of my walk, I came upon the familiar boat shaped seed pods I see often. When the seeds are still in the pods (but split open), the pods are moist and seeds bright red-orange. When the seed pods are dry, the seeds have popped out leaving the perfect receptacle for a bit of wax and a cotton wick.
I thoroughly dried the pods in the oven on 200 degrees for 10 minutes, and let them cool completely before filling them with a mix of beeswax from Topanga Beeswax, a hint of coconut oil and trace amounts of leftover wax from an assortment of used candles.
I like cotton twine for my wicks, the kind found in the kitchen section of stores used for baking. I have found that it works better than waxed twine intended for candles.
Trim wicks to 1/4 inch and only burn in a fire pit or fireplace as the whole pod is flammable.
We also made Pinecone Fire Starters. You may check out how we did that Here. While I think the pinecone fire starters look more charming, I think the seed pods were better at sustaining a fire to get the logs started.
